172 CAUSES OF BARRENNESS, &C. 



sometimes see the mutilated scape of a narcissus 

 resolve itself into and do the office of a leaf, but it 

 would be truly wonderful to see a leaf, or any number 

 of leaves, resolve themselves into a flower ! We also 

 witness the mutability of monoecious and dioecious 

 flowers ; showing that such plants are constitution- 

 ally provided with the principles of both male and 

 female flowers on other parts of the plant than 

 where they usually appear : and that soil, situation, 

 or season sometimes operate to produce either 

 or both, as circumstances determine. Even the 

 mutilated stem of the common white lily will pro- 

 duce bulbs at the fracture, when the development of 

 the flower is prevented. But to maintain that the 

 flowers have no positive identity in the constitution 

 of the plant, or, what is nearly the same thing, formed 

 of the proper leaves, is and must be as perplexing to 

 the botanical student as it is to the practical man. 

 The latter is well acquainted with the transformations 

 visible among highly cultivated plants. He ascribes 

 them to accident, and to the changeability of the 

 vegetable fabric under the expedients of cultivation. 

 And though he may wish to believe, that by possi- 

 bility a flower is but a stunted branch, for the sake 

 of agreeing with his superiors in science ; yet he 

 finds much difficulty in applying the doctrine gene- 

 rally. Among pomaceous plants, a distant resem- 

 blance may be, by the help of imagination, traced ; 

 but how can he apply the doctrine to such plants as 

 the tulip? in this case he must call the flower an 



